The Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 can cook 10 cups of rice or steam a basket of vegetables with no fuss at all, and it looks pretty good while doing it. The stainless steel finish is contemporary, but beneath this the Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 is a conventional rice cooker in a price bracket with multifunction models.

Setting up

After washing the removable parts, replace the inner bowl, clip in the steam vent, plug in the power cord and you’re ready to cook. It couldn’t be easier. There’s just one button to activate the cooking process, and when the rice is done it clicks into keep warm mode where it will stay until you unplug it.

Features

The Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 is a classic on/off rice cooker with the bonus of a sealing lid (with removable steam vent) and a brushed stainless steel finish on the body. It works with two cups to 10 cups of uncooked rice (the cup provided is 180 ml which holds about 135 grams of rice). Like any rice cooker, you can use it to cook many varieties of rice, including seasoned rice and some rice dishes. To get started, the instruction manual includes a few rice-based recipes, instructions on how to cook sushi rice and prepare sushi, and detailed information about steaming various foods. The plastic steamer basket, which sits in the top of the inner bowl, is reasonably spacious.

The non-stick inner bowl is like those found in most basic rice cookers: lightweight aluminium with a thin looking non-stick coating. The unit we tested had already had some tiny scratches in one area of the bowl despite being brand new, straight out of the box.

This model comes with four rice bowls and chopsticks. Sunbeam also offers a 12 month replacement warranty should the Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 malfunction due to faulty materials or manufacture, and there is a consumer hotline number in the manual.

Performance

We found the Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 produced some great rice and did so faster than the standard setting of more sophisticated multifunction models (these often have quick cook cycles that skip soaking or resting stages). However, not all our results were fantastic. Our medium grain rice turned out notably better than our long grain rice. The long grain results may have been something to do with the particular lot it came from or it may be a matter of adjusting the water level slightly for particular rice varieties to get the texture you want with this rice cooker. We also tried cooking sushi rice following the instructions in the manual, taking the option of adding three cups of water rather than filling the pot to the three cup level, and it turned out very well. One idiosyncracy we found with the rice we prepared in the Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 was a light brown crust on the bottom of each batch, but it’s easy enough to avoid the bottom layer when serving up the rice if you wish (and some people really like the crust).

We experimented by cooking steamed frozen dumplings using the half cup (metric cup, not rice cooker cup) water level specified for 10 to 15 minutes on the steaming times table in the manual. This amount didn’t even cover the bottom of the inner bowl, but it certainly boiled fast and the dumplings steamed well. We would recommend using more than the minimum amount of water for the steaming time, however, unless you are going to stand by and monitor the time and cooking process, as it’s easy to forget about it until you smell burning from cooking water scorching on the bottom of the inner bowl (don?t even leave it on keep warm if it’s out of water). There’s no way of knowing exactly when the water reaches boiling or when steaming is done, and opening the lid to check may slow this down. It’s also possible to steam food while rice is cooking, but opening the lid to add or remove food will interrupt the rice cooking process to some degree.

The brushed stainless steel finish on the body provides relief from the run-of-the-mill white plastic rice cooker; it doesn’t mark easily and is easy to clean. The inner lid of the Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 is not removable as in some models, so it’s harder to clean. You have to wipe away any cooking residue from the aluminium surface and surrounding seal while the lid is open. The edges of the seal are tricky to access for cleaning and drying.

The brushed stainless steel finish on the body provides relief from the run-of-the-mill white plastic rice cooker; it doesn’t mark easily and is easy to clean.

Conclusion

The Sunbeam Rice Perfect Deluxe 10 cooks well and is relatively fast. It is quite expensive for a basic 10-cup rice cooker, especially considering the quality of the inner bowl is average at best. However, you might consider it if you want a stainless steel finish and you don’t require more sophisticated features such as porridge or slow cooker options or a timer.